- Title: Iraqis to vote in ballot marked by growing social and political fractures
- Date: 28th September 2021
- Summary: NASSIRIYA, IRAQ (SEPTEMBER 23, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BANNERS AND POSTERS IN THE STREET FOR MEMBERS OF IRAQ'S POPULAR MOBILISATION FORCES WHO WERE KILLED AND POSTERS FOR ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTERS WHO WERE KILLED TRAFFIC IN NASSIRIYA IRAQI RIGHTS' ACTIVIST, MOHAMMED YASSER, ENTERING THE LIVING ROOM AND HOLDING BOOKS WHILE SITTING DOWN ON THE COUCH VARIOUS OF YASSER READING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQI RIGHTS ACTIVIST, MOHAMMED YASSER, SAYING: "Boycotting (the election) is a position, a position since 2018. During the 2018 elections, this was our position. There are different reasons behind this position, including everything related to militias and the weapons outside the control of the state, the political money, the electoral law, the electoral commission that is not independent. It was formed following the rules of the 'muhasasa' (ethno-sectarian power-sharing scheme). I don't participate in elections that are pre-settled to some armed groups which are in control and trading even with the blood of martyrs, the Popular Mobilisation Forces, the national stands, and the reforms laws." BASRA, IRAQ (SEPTEMBER 21, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EMPLOYEES OF IRAQ'S INDEPENDENT HIGH COMMISSION WORKING AT THE OFFICE PREPARING BIOMETRIC VOTER CARDS AHEAD OF THE OCTOBER 10 ELECTION NASSIRIYA, IRAQ (SEPTEMBER 23, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQI RIGHTS ACTIVIST, MOHAMMED YASSER, SAYING: "We have a number of protesters that were killed, and others who went missing, there are a lot of issues. So whenever the right time comes to participate in the election, we will participate widely. But in light of the current circumstances, it is impossible to have election results that serve and provide services to Iraqis and save Iraqis from the difficult and dangerous situation created by armed factions. So the boycott is a situational position, not a strategic one." VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC
- Embargoed: 12th October 2021 09:02
- Keywords: Elections Fractures Iraq Vote
- Location: NASSIRIYA AND BASRA, IRAQ
- City: NASSIRIYA AND BASRA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Middle East,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001EWMX0SN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Elections in Iraq next month are being held early in response to mass protests against the government in 2019, but there is scant evidence the vote will improve matters in a country where powerful armed groups still hold sway.
Iraqis crave drastic change after years of conflict and corruption following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. A brutal war to fight off Islamic State that ended in 2017 was followed two years later by protests against the ruling elite in which hundreds died.
And as the United States seeks to disengage, Iran retains deep influence in one of the region's main oil-producing nations.
Iraq's tortured politics are graphically illustrated in a town square in the south, where weathered portraits displayed on large hoardings honour those killed fighting for causes they hoped would help their country.
The images of thousands of militiamen whose paramilitary factions battled Islamic State hang beside those of hundreds of young men killed two years later protesting against the same paramilitaries.
Defeating Islamic State united Iraqis, who voted victorious militia commanders into parliament at the last election in 2018.
Iraq's next vote on October 10, by contrast, is set to lay bare growing rifts that have since emerged, none more than among the Shi'ite majority that was catapulted to power by the U.S. invasion of 2003.
Shi'ite militia groups backed by Iran are facing off at the polls against other Shi'ite armed groups that oppose Iran's influence. The activists who took to the streets in protest in 2019 are split among themselves, some boycotting the election and others taking part.
Reuters interviews ahead of the election with a cross-section of Shi'ites in southern Iraq, as well as Sunnis in the north, paint a picture of a country whose politicians, armed groups, and communities are more fractured than ever.
Mohammed Yasser, a rights activist from the city of Nassiriya, where security forces gunned down scores of demonstrators in 2019, said political fractures run deep even within his family.
Yasser is refusing to vote, while some in his family vote for reformist parties and one of his son's supports the Sadrist Movement, he said, referring to Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - a populist leader who promises reform but is deeply embedded in the state and has a militia of his own.
Some politicians say Iraq is moving forward. The election is being held six months early under a new law meant to help independent candidates, with 167 parties running, according to Iraq's election commission.
Violent sectarianism is less of a feature and security is better than it has been for years.
Ordinary Iraqis, foreign diplomats, and analysts say the reality is a contest dominated by heavily armed groups which control state bodies and resources and are willing to resort to force to retain power.
They say popular resentment over corruption and lack of public services could play into the hands of groups like the Islamic State or push more Iraqis to migrate to the West.
The vote's aftermath will set the tone for the coming years: whether armed groups turn their guns on each other or peacefully divide the spoils.
Nassiriya, a flashpoint of anti-government protests, is a microcosm of Iraq's fracturing political landscape.
Parties hold rallies in halls out of public view and have not erected campaign posters because protesters tear them down.
Activists running as candidates keep a low profile, scared of militia groups which officials say are behind a campaign of murder and intimidation - something the militias deny.
Candidate Dawood al-Hafathi said splits in the protest movement had earned him threats from fellow demonstrators who want to boycott the vote.
The main contest is between Iran-aligned parties with their militias and Sadr, who opposes all foreign interference.
Sadrist officials and Iran-aligned candidates in Nassiriya downplayed their differences, saying they were mostly staying out of each other's way ahead of the election.
But one Sadrist official in Baghdad, who requested anonymity, said he feared violence if his party swept the vote.
Fractures have also hit Iraq's northern Sunni provinces and in its autonomous Kurdistan region. Protests in Kurdistan were violently crushed last year, alienating many people.
Sunni families suspected of sympathising with the Islamic State still fear reprisals, such as Brahim al-Hishmawi, a Sunni living in Kurdistan who said he would be risking his life should he go back to his hometown to vote.
(Production: Mohammed Aty, Maher Nazeh, Charlotte Bruneau) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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